Episode Transcript
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Jerusalem, previously referred
to as the City of David,
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was in some ways not a city
as we would see it today.
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It was more like a fortress in the Judean Hills.
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Jerusalem, with its rises and falls over time,
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presents us with an opportunity to reflect
on its story and its history.
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We hope you enjoy
T<i>he Navel of the Earth:</i>
<i>Jerusalem in time, theology and imagination. </i>
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Last time we reached a point
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where the northern kingdom had
anished into the black hole of history.
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But Jerusalem
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had survived the onslaught
of the Assyrian attack.
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And having welcomed
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all of the refugees from the north,
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after the fall of the north.
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We have seen this great
amalgam of traditions
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that will eventually give us
the Bible as we know it.
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Whatever about the prophet Isaiah
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and his proclamation of the
inviolability of Jerusalem, of Zion,
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which is simply another
name for Jerusalem.
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The seventh century, the six hundreds.
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Were a time of great threat
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and great instability in Jerusalem.
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Because a new imperial power
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had appeared on the radar screen.
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Having broken the power
of Assyria we now find
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that the dominant imperial power is Babylon.
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And again,
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for efficiency and ferocity,
they were hard to beat.
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So, through this seventh century,
the six hundreds,
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the dominant imperial power is Babylon.
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And that again will prove fateful
for the city of Jerusalem.
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Through this century,
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the six hundreds.
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There was
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the sense that there
needed to be drastic reform
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in Jerusalem,
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religious reform.
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That the real threat,
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and this was what the prophets were saying.
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The real threat wasn't from outside,
it wasn't Babylon.
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The real threat was from within.
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It was their disobedience of God,
their faithlessness,
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their refusal to accept
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and obey the Torah, the law of God,
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which was the great liberating law
that God had given His people,
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precisely as a way of Exodus,
a way out of the house of slavery.
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And what the prophets are saying
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is that insofar as you turn away from this law
that God has given as a path of liberation,
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you're going to find your way into the
world of death and the world of slavery.
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So, take your pick.
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So, there was a serious attempt at reform
and renewal right through this century.
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Now, it took a very precise shape.
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First of all,
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those who were pushing the reform
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decided to educate the crown prince,
whose name was Josiah.
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And to make sure that he was persuaded
of the need for reform and renewal.
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And that when he became the king,
he would push reform.
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And that's exactly what happened.
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Josiah, when he eventually becomes king,
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is very much a man of reform and renewal.
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So that was the first piece
of the strategy.
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The second
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piece of the puzzle
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or of the strategy was to have a prophet
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who would work with the king
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on this project of reform and renewal.
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And the prophet in this case was Jeremiah.
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Jeremiah in many ways inherits the
prophetic traditions of the northern kingdom,
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but they take root in the south,
in him, and monumentally so.
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So, he is the second crucial piece
of the reform strategy.
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You have the king, Josiah.
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You have the prophet, Jeremiah.
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And then you need a text
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for the program of renewal and reform.
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And that text is the book
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we know as Deuteronomy.
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Deuteronomy is a Greek title,
which means simply the second law.
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Now the claim was that it was
found in the temple mysteriously.
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Who knows exactly what its origins are?
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But whatever its origins, it became
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the charter of reform and renewal.
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Now, reform and renewal
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weren't just religious, in some narrow sense.
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They were religious, but that also meant
they were political and military.
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Because you can't distinguish
those three things,
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Political, military and religious
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are all intertwined,
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interconnected in deep and crucial ways.
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So that was the strategy,
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get the right king, get the right prophet
speaking on behalf of God,
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and have the text and the speaker in
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the book of Deuteronomy is always Moses.
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So, God through Moses,
God through Jeremiah,
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and God through Josiah.
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Now the project of reform and renewal
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was only partially successful.
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Eventually it will become a religious triumph,
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but that's beyond the exile,
more of which to come.
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But politically and militarily,
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it begins to falter
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with the death of King Josiah in battle.
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So, there is one
crucial piece of the puzzle
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that is now lost.
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Those who succeed Josiah to leadership
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no longer listen to the voice
of the prophet Jermiah,
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who becomes a voice
crying in the wilderness
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and eventually is rejected, persecuted,
and threatened with death.
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So, they don’t listen
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to the voice of the prophet.
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And also, the text
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no longer becomes
the charter that frames leadership
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and the crucial decisions
that the leaders have to make.
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As the threat of Babylon grows greater.
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Now, eventually what happens,
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and Jeremiah is still living at this time.
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There is a first
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conquest of Jerusalem
by Babylon in 597 BC.
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So, we're now in the five hundreds, 597.
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And the Babylonians were fairly sure
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that what happened
in 597 would teach Jerusalem
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such a lesson that they would,
as it were, pull their head in.
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This was the first transportation
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of people from Jerusalem to Babylon.
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Now, this was standard practice
in the ancient world.
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That a victorious people
would take the conquered people
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and transport them to another
part of the kingdom or the empire.
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This was to undermine local loyalties
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and to create a new kind of unity
within the empire or the kingdom.
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So, there was nothing unusual about this.
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So, it would have been
some of the leadership groups
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were taken from Jerusalem
to Babylon in 597.
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But that was only a prelude
to what was coming.
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Because what happened in 597,
and despite the continuing
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prophecy of Jeremiah,
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did not, teach Jerusalem a lesson.
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They continued to provoke
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in all kinds of ways,
political and military, the Babylonians.
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So, in 587, ten years later,
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Babylon decides for the final solution.
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They again lay siege to Jerusalem.
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And not only lay siege,
they take the city
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and they put it to the torch.
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The temple is destroyed,
the city is largely destroyed,
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and a much more massive
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transportation
of at least the leadership groups
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happens in 587, the Babylonian exile.
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Which is one of the two catastrophes
that really are the womb of the Bible.
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The Bible, the Old Testament as we have
it is really born of this catastrophe,
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the Babylonian exile.
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When the whole show seemed to collapse,
where was God now?
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Because in the ancient world,
if you beat me in battle,
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it was because your god beat
my god in a battle in heaven.
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So, if the Babylonian god had proved,
Marduk, had proved
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stronger than the God of Israel, wouldn't
you back, Marduk?
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Go and worship him,
forget the God of Israel, he's useless.
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And that's what happened, to some extent.
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So, this was,
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it wasn't just a political
and military crisis of the first order.
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It was also a religious
and theological crisis of the first order.
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Where is God
in the midst of the catastrophe?
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That's the question that drives
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the Old Testament.
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But it also will,
as we will see in a later podcast,
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it also drives
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the New Testament,
where it will be another destruction
that prompts the same question.
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Now, the Babylonian exile
lasts for about fifty years.
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And you see traces of it
monumentally throughout
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the Hebrew Bible.
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And in the Psalms, for instance,
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by the streams of Babylon we sat and wept
when we thought of you O Zion,
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if I ever forget you Jerusalem, let
my tongue cleave to my mouth, and so on.
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But they didn't just hang up their harps on
the poplars there and sing the songs of Zion.
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They got their noses
over their sacred texts.
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Which they had brought
with them into exile.
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And they rummaged through the
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sacred texts, the embers.
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Looking for a spark of hope
for the future.
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Is there a future to hope in?
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Is really the same question as, where is
God in the midst of the catastrophe
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when everything
seems to have fallen apart?
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So there begins then, this massive process
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of rereading, revising,
reediting the sacred texts
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in the search for a hope in the midst
of what seemed hopelessness.
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And the Bible is always
a proclamation of a hard won
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hope in the midst of all
that seems hopeless.
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In that sense,
it's not cheap hope or cosmetic hope.
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Now, eventually,
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Babylonian power begins to wane,
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and a new imperial power begins
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to appear on the horizon.
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This time, it's Persia,
led by an extraordinarily
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charismatic and powerful
figure known as Cyrus,
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sometimes Cyrus the Great.
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Eventually, the Persian army
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defeats the Babylonian army in battle.
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And that's the end of Babylonian power.
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Now, when Cyrus
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arrives in Babylon as the conqueror,
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he finds these exiles.
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And he decides
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that if they wish,
they can return to their homeland.
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He has no desire to keep them in exile.
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So here was the invitation.
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Now, of course,
the Prophets, people like Ezekiel,
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see this as the intervention of God,
not just Cyrus,
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that Cyrus was being used by God
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to lead the people back to Jerusalem.
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So, Cyrus
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then says,
if you want to go home, you can go home.
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Now, there was no great rush.
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Because many of the exiles had,
in fact made quite good lives in Babylon.
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So, some did decide to go home,
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but many decided to stay in Babylon.
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And that's why we have,
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even in much later centuries,
we have a large
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and important Jewish community
in Babylon that produce a text,
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an important text
like the Babylonian Talmud.
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So, some go home,
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and they would have been driven
by a religious motivation.
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Now, this is about 537 BC.
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It happened in waves, in fact.
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So, it's not quite as neat
as I'm suggesting.
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Nothing ever is in Jerusalem.
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So, when they get home to Jerusalem,
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what they find is a depressing sight.
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The city is in ruins
and has been for fifty years.
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And you see this in biblical texts
where they say, you know,
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they wept at the sight of the city destroyed,
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the temple destroyed,
the jackals prowl, and so on.
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So, they look at the ruins of Jerusalem.
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And the question is, where do we start?
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So, it was a depressing prospect.
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And again, prophets appear at this time
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to say, come on,
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stir yourself for the rebuilding,
the task of rebuilding.
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It may be difficult, of course it is.
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But it's not impossible.
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So, as they begin, slowly, slowly
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to rebuild the city.
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But they have to rebuild the community
first of all.
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And that involves a religious rebuilding.
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So, in other words, it's not enough
just to rebuild the fabric of the city.
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They have to rebuild the community
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out of which the city arises, as it were.
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Now, they decide to rebuild the temple.
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But this, of course, is
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much harder than ever it had
been under King Solomon, in part
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because they don't have the same wealth,
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they don't have the same population.
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And eventually the temple that they rebuild.
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People who had known the old temple
of King Solomon when they saw
this second temple, they wept.
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Because it seemed so poor by comparison with
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00:16:37,200 --> 00:16:39,120
what they had known.
253
00:16:39,120 --> 00:16:42,520
But the rebuilding of the
temple was crucial.
254
00:16:42,520 --> 00:16:49,560
Because this was again
a reassertion of the belief
255
00:16:49,560 --> 00:16:54,880
that Jerusalem was the place
where God had made his home.
256
00:16:54,880 --> 00:16:57,000
Now, one of the things after the exile
257
00:16:57,000 --> 00:17:00,960
is that the monarchy,
the Davidic monarchy.
258
00:17:00,960 --> 00:17:04,200
Now there was the kings
who looked back to David,
259
00:17:04,200 --> 00:17:06,960
that it vanished forever.
260
00:17:06,960 --> 00:17:11,400
So, the king, there was no king after the exile.
261
00:17:11,400 --> 00:17:13,800
Nor was there an Ark of the Covenant.
262
00:17:13,800 --> 00:17:16,320
We don't know what happened
to the Ark of the Covenant,
263
00:17:16,320 --> 00:17:20,800
but it seems to have vanished
at the time of the Babylonian exile.
264
00:17:20,800 --> 00:17:23,160
And this again would
have been standard practice.
265
00:17:23,160 --> 00:17:27,160
Before the destruction of the temple
by the Babylonians, they would have taken
266
00:17:27,160 --> 00:17:31,760
from the temple anything of value
as the trophies of victory.
267
00:17:31,760 --> 00:17:34,960
And surely the Ark of the Covenant,
268
00:17:34,960 --> 00:17:38,760
which was the only
thing in the Holy of Holies
269
00:17:38,760 --> 00:17:42,000
in Jerusalem.
270
00:17:42,000 --> 00:17:46,080
The Holy of Holies was the
inner sanctum of the Jerusalem Temple,
271
00:17:46,080 --> 00:17:50,120
and only the high priest could
enter there on one day of the year
272
00:17:50,120 --> 00:17:53,640
and make atonement
for the sins of the people.
273
00:17:53,640 --> 00:17:58,920
After the exile, with the temple rebuilt,
the Holy of Holies was empty.
274
00:17:58,920 --> 00:18:00,480
There was nothing in it.
275
00:18:00,480 --> 00:18:02,480
Because the Ark had disappeared.
276
00:18:02,480 --> 00:18:08,840
So that when Pompey, for instance,
the Roman general,
conquers Jerusalem in 63 BC,
277
00:18:08,840 --> 00:18:13,640
he storms up onto the Temple Mount.
278
00:18:13,640 --> 00:18:17,280
Keen to see what's there.
279
00:18:17,280 --> 00:18:21,800
And he goes through the first chamber
of the temple building,
280
00:18:21,800 --> 00:18:25,640
and then the second chamber,
and then the Holy of Holies
281
00:18:25,640 --> 00:18:28,920
lay beyond that, with its great curtain.
282
00:18:28,920 --> 00:18:33,000
So, he storms through the curtain,
and to his astonishment,
283
00:18:33,000 --> 00:18:37,560
in the Holy of Holies, the inner sanctum,
there was nothing.
284
00:18:37,560 --> 00:18:41,160
Pompey couldn't believe it,
not even a statue.
285
00:18:41,160 --> 00:18:44,880
And that in itself is
286
00:18:44,880 --> 00:18:48,480
a fascinating insight
into Jewish religion.
287
00:18:48,480 --> 00:18:51,520
That the epicenter of the Divine Presence
288
00:18:51,520 --> 00:18:54,840
was, in fact an absence.
289
00:18:54,840 --> 00:18:59,920
Because Jerusalem had to discover
290
00:18:59,920 --> 00:19:05,040
the presence of God in the midst of what
seemed to be the absence of God.
291
00:19:05,040 --> 00:19:10,400
You know, again, where is God
in the midst of the catastrophe?
292
00:19:10,400 --> 00:19:13,520
So that interplay of presence
and absence is something
293
00:19:13,520 --> 00:19:17,720
that is, thematic
really in the whole of Scripture.
294
00:19:17,720 --> 00:19:21,480
So, the king has vanished forever.
295
00:19:21,480 --> 00:19:26,600
And at this stage, what happens to,
the promise made to David
296
00:19:26,600 --> 00:19:32,440
and his dynasty of an eternal throne
is referred to the end time.
297
00:19:32,440 --> 00:19:37,840
The word that is sometimes used
is it becomes an eschatological hope.
298
00:19:37,840 --> 00:19:39,840
It's referred to the end time.
299
00:19:39,840 --> 00:19:46,600
That at the end time
there will appear an ideal Davidic king.
300
00:19:46,600 --> 00:19:48,360
But in other words,
301
00:19:48,360 --> 00:19:53,840
ambition is abandoned for the
historical and political arena.
302
00:19:53,840 --> 00:19:57,920
In that sense, the Davidic monarchy
vanishes into a black hole.
303
00:19:57,920 --> 00:20:02,960
But the hope attaching to the Davidic
dynasty is referred to an end time.
304
00:20:02,960 --> 00:20:08,360
Now Christianity sees that
Jesus is the ideal Davidic king.
305
00:20:08,360 --> 00:20:11,800
So, Christianity makes a
great deal of that hope
306
00:20:11,800 --> 00:20:14,840
referred to an end time.
307
00:20:14,840 --> 00:20:19,000
And attaches it to the figure of Jesus.
308
00:20:19,000 --> 00:20:20,480
The leadership
309
00:20:20,480 --> 00:20:25,440
of this community, which is now,
more of a religious community
310
00:20:25,440 --> 00:20:29,240
than it is, a political and military community.
311
00:20:29,240 --> 00:20:32,520
The leadership passes
to the high priesthood.
312
00:20:32,520 --> 00:20:34,600
Who at this time
313
00:20:34,600 --> 00:20:38,040
puts on top of the high priests’ turban,
314
00:20:38,040 --> 00:20:41,880
he wore a kind of a headdress
that was like a turban.
315
00:20:41,880 --> 00:20:47,280
The royal diadem is
now worn by the high priest.
316
00:20:47,280 --> 00:20:50,120
That's because there is no king.
317
00:20:50,120 --> 00:20:52,720
So, the high priest becomes
318
00:20:52,720 --> 00:20:56,600
the one who is
319
00:20:56,600 --> 00:20:59,560
the promoter of unity among this
320
00:20:59,560 --> 00:21:02,600
now much smaller community.
321
00:21:02,600 --> 00:21:09,520
So, through this post-exilic period,
down to the New Testament.
322
00:21:09,520 --> 00:21:11,280
You have a succession of empires.
323
00:21:11,280 --> 00:21:15,800
We've seen already Assyria,
then Babylon, and then Persia.
324
00:21:15,800 --> 00:21:21,600
But in the fourth century,
in other words, the three hundreds.
325
00:21:21,600 --> 00:21:26,840
Another power appears on the horizon,
and this time it's Greece,
326
00:21:26,840 --> 00:21:30,440
led by the extraordinarily charismatic
327
00:21:30,440 --> 00:21:34,480
and successful Alexander the Great.
328
00:21:34,480 --> 00:21:40,000
And in 333 BC,
329
00:21:40,000 --> 00:21:43,280
he wins a crucial battle,
330
00:21:43,280 --> 00:21:47,880
really decisive in terms of history,
against Persia.
331
00:21:47,880 --> 00:21:51,960
So, the power of Persia is broken
in this part of the world.
332
00:21:51,960 --> 00:21:56,560
And the new imperial power becomes Greece
333
00:21:56,560 --> 00:22:01,520
from 333 onwards.
334
00:22:01,520 --> 00:22:06,360
Alexander dies in his early thirties.
335
00:22:06,360 --> 00:22:09,320
And he leaves no heir.
336
00:22:09,320 --> 00:22:13,360
So, he had built up a massive empire.
337
00:22:13,360 --> 00:22:17,040
But with his early death,
the question was,
338
00:22:17,040 --> 00:22:22,200
well, who takes over now?
339
00:22:22,200 --> 00:22:28,200
And there was a struggle
for power of course.
340
00:22:28,200 --> 00:22:32,440
So, that three of the generals of
341
00:22:32,440 --> 00:22:35,280
Alexander,
342
00:22:35,280 --> 00:22:42,200
each takes a third of the Empire.
343
00:22:42,200 --> 00:22:45,440
One takes Egypt, one takes
344
00:22:45,440 --> 00:22:49,440
Greece, and one takes
what was called Syria.
345
00:22:49,440 --> 00:22:51,360
That area,
346
00:22:51,360 --> 00:22:56,440
we know as the Holy Land and further east.
347
00:22:56,440 --> 00:23:01,480
So, that Jerusalem is now part of Syria.
348
00:23:01,480 --> 00:23:05,600
And under, basically Greek rule.
349
00:23:05,600 --> 00:23:10,600
And this is where the Greek language
becomes the imperial language of the time.
350
00:23:10,600 --> 00:23:15,000
And that's why we have the
New Testament in Greek,
351
00:23:15,000 --> 00:23:17,720
what they call Koine Greek,
which means common Greek,
352
00:23:17,720 --> 00:23:21,520
the Greek that was spoken
in the marketplace and in the streets.
353
00:23:21,520 --> 00:23:26,760
It wasn't the classical Greek
of the great literature,
354
00:23:26,760 --> 00:23:32,280
but it was an ordinary, everyday spoken
Greek, much simpler than classical Greek.
355
00:23:32,280 --> 00:23:35,880
But that's the Greek
that we have in the New Testament.
356
00:23:35,880 --> 00:23:41,160
Now, another point of crisis will come
357
00:23:41,160 --> 00:23:46,520
when one of these Greek rulers
from the city of Antioch,
358
00:23:46,520 --> 00:23:49,280
which was the capital of the Syrian
359
00:23:49,280 --> 00:23:52,920
part of the empire,
of which Jerusalem was part,
360
00:23:52,920 --> 00:23:55,080
decides that he will
361
00:23:55,080 --> 00:23:58,840
insist upon pagan religion
362
00:23:58,840 --> 00:24:03,360
and prohibit
363
00:24:03,360 --> 00:24:06,720
the practice of Jewish religion.
364
00:24:06,720 --> 00:24:12,720
And to make his point,
he sacrifices it is said, he sacrificed a hog
365
00:24:12,720 --> 00:24:17,200
on the altar of the Temple in Jerusalem.
366
00:24:17,200 --> 00:24:20,680
Greater horror than which the
Jews could not imagine.
367
00:24:20,680 --> 00:24:24,840
So, at this there is a rebellion
368
00:24:24,840 --> 00:24:27,520
against Greek power.
369
00:24:27,520 --> 00:24:34,200
A reassertion of Jewish
370
00:24:34,200 --> 00:24:40,040
military power again, and this time
against all the odds, and led by those
371
00:24:40,040 --> 00:24:43,600
who are called the Maccabees
or the Maccabees,
372
00:24:43,600 --> 00:24:46,200
which means the hammers.
373
00:24:46,200 --> 00:24:52,160
They wage a guerrilla
warfare which is successful.
374
00:24:52,160 --> 00:24:58,200
So, there is a period
then of independence.
375
00:24:58,200 --> 00:25:01,920
It doesn't last for terribly long.
376
00:25:01,920 --> 00:25:04,920
Because eventually
377
00:25:04,920 --> 00:25:07,640
Greek power will wane.
378
00:25:07,640 --> 00:25:10,040
Sounds familiar, doesn't it?
379
00:25:10,040 --> 00:25:12,600
And a new imperial power
380
00:25:12,600 --> 00:25:16,400
will rise to the occasion
381
00:25:16,400 --> 00:25:17,920
and dominate this part of the world.
382
00:25:17,920 --> 00:25:21,200
And this, of course, is Rome.
383
00:25:21,200 --> 00:25:22,200
Now again,
384
00:25:22,200 --> 00:25:27,000
no one had seen anything
like the Roman army
385
00:25:27,000 --> 00:25:33,120
in terms of discipline, power, brutality,
386
00:25:33,120 --> 00:25:36,800
and just sheer efficiency
as a killing machine
387
00:25:36,800 --> 00:25:41,160
and as a winner of battles,
it was, unique.
388
00:25:41,160 --> 00:25:45,200
So, they cut a swathe
through this part of the world.
389
00:25:45,200 --> 00:25:48,480
And they take Jerusalem
390
00:25:48,480 --> 00:25:53,400
as part of their military campaign.
391
00:25:53,400 --> 00:25:55,600
And this is under the general who's known
392
00:25:55,600 --> 00:25:59,240
normally as Pompey or Pompey the Great.
393
00:25:59,240 --> 00:26:03,080
And he it was who
394
00:26:03,080 --> 00:26:06,360
stormed on to the Temple Mount,
as I have said, and discovered
395
00:26:06,360 --> 00:26:10,000
that there was nothing
when he expected something
396
00:26:10,000 --> 00:26:14,760
and something extraordinary,
there was nothing.
397
00:26:14,760 --> 00:26:20,760
This then takes us to the very threshold
of the New Testament period.
398
00:26:20,760 --> 00:26:25,560
Where you have Rome
as the dominant power.
399
00:26:25,560 --> 00:26:28,200
But Rome worked through often, not always.
400
00:26:28,200 --> 00:26:34,080
But in this case, Rome followed a policy
of working through a puppet king.
401
00:26:34,080 --> 00:26:37,200
And this is where King Herod
enters the scene.
402
00:26:37,200 --> 00:26:40,120
He was king of the Jews.
403
00:26:40,120 --> 00:26:46,960
But, although he had a Nabataean
background, he was only half Jewish, in fact.
404
00:26:46,960 --> 00:26:54,360
But Herod was completely
in the pocket of the Romans.
405
00:26:54,360 --> 00:26:56,320
And so, he was a puppet king.
406
00:26:56,320 --> 00:27:02,160
But he was an absolutely
extraordinary builder.
407
00:27:02,160 --> 00:27:06,000
And it's at that point that we really do,
408
00:27:06,000 --> 00:27:10,080
come to the world of the New Testament.
409
00:27:10,080 --> 00:27:14,760
Because Herod builds, in part,
to state his credentials,
410
00:27:14,760 --> 00:27:17,880
and to say, I'm the real thing.
411
00:27:17,880 --> 00:27:20,880
He builds the temple with a magnificence
412
00:27:20,880 --> 00:27:24,920
that took people back to
the glory days of Solomon.
413
00:27:24,920 --> 00:27:27,360
So, Herod builds the temple,
414
00:27:27,360 --> 00:27:31,440
and that is the world
into which Jesus is born.
415
00:27:31,440 --> 00:27:36,240
The temple of King Herod,
with all its glory.
416
00:27:36,240 --> 00:27:41,160
And the dominance of the Romans.
417
00:27:41,160 --> 00:27:43,880
So, we’ll rest it there.
418
00:27:43,880 --> 00:27:48,680
And in the next podcast,
we will explore Jerusalem
419
00:27:48,680 --> 00:27:51,760
in the world of the New Testament
and beyond.
420
00:27:52,880 --> 00:28:01,240
Thank you for listening to this episode of
<i>The Navel of the Earth:</i>
<i>Jerusalem in time, theology and imagination.</i>
421
00:28:01,240 --> 00:28:04,200
A new episode is released weekly.
422
00:28:04,200 --> 00:28:10,600
You can find more podcasts
from the Archdiocese of Brisbane
from most major podcast providers
423
00:28:10,600 --> 00:28:15,120
or from our website: brisbanecatholic.org.au
